Embodiments of the invention generally relate to systems and methods for collaboration, and in particular, to simultaneous game play.
People have played games for centuries. For example, board games are known to have existed in ancient Egypt. Similarly, card games are believed to have been played in China as early as the 9th century during the Tang Dynasty. Some games from these periods have survived. For example, Go—a board game originating in China some 2,000 years ago—remains popular today. Over time, thousands of different games and game types have been devised.
Currently, electronic and video games are widely popular, and by many measures the size of the video game industry now exceeds that of the motion picture industry. Further, mobile computing platforms, such as mobile telephones, personal music players and personal digital assistants, have rapidly become a popular platform for game play—for both new implementations of existing games (e.g., electronic versions of card and board games) and new games and game types. One common aspect across many games is the presence of both public and private information, relative to game play. For example, many card games are premised on each user having a different set of private cards while sharing other cards in common, such as sharing a common “draw” and “discard” pile in rummy, gin, hearts, etc., or the “hole” and “community” cards of certain variations of poker such as Texas Hold 'Em or Omaha.